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Over the past 30 years, three-quarters of eastern US tree species have been shifting to the west, and at an astonishing rate of around 15.4 kilometres per decade (9.5 miles). That’s weird, because scientists have long predicted that the effects of climate change would send species towards the poles in search of familiar climates, but

Researchers in Antarctica have discovered rapidly growing banks of mosses on the ice continent’s northern peninsula, providing striking evidence of climate change in the coldest and most remote parts of the planet. Amid the warming of the last 50 years, the scientists found two different species of mosses undergoing the equivalent of growth spurts, with

Google has announced another big push into artificial intelligence, unveiling a new approach to machine learning where neural networks are used to build better neural networks – essentially teaching AI to teach itself. These artificial neural networks are designed to mimic the way the brain learns, and Google says its new technology, called AutoML, can

A new study on how genes function across the living world has added weight to the hypothesis that life on Earth was capturing energy from chemical reactions before it was copying its codes. The result throws fuel onto the original evolutionary ‘chicken and egg’ debate that asks, which came first, replicating RNA or metabolism?

The first direct detection of gravitational waves, a phenomenon predicted by Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity, was reported by scientists in 2016. Armed with this “discovery of the century”, physicists around the world have been planning new and better detectors of gravitational waves. Physicist Professor Chunnong Zhao and his recent PhD students Haixing

It seems like it’s getting harder and harder to get a good night’s sleep. Myriad distractions are in cahoots, keeping you from getting enough shut-eye. We’re supposed to get seven to nine hours of sleep, but many Americans don’t hit that target every night. Sleep can provide incredible health benefits, like helping us lose weight, improving our memories, and even

NASA space probes have detected a massive, human-made ‘barrier’ surrounding Earth, and tests have confirmed that it’s actually having an effect on space weather far beyond our planet’s atmosphere. That means we’re not just changing Earth so severely, scientists are calling for a whole new geological epoch to be named after us – our activities

If you live in the US, you’re probably used to talking about weight in pounds and ounces (and having to convert things when Australians like us start talking in kilograms and grams), but here’s the thing – all your measurements are actually based on one very metric standard: the international kilogram. Veritasium host Derek Muller

Scientists have found that Proxima b – the closest Earth-like exoplanet to our own Solar System – could indeed be habitable, giving new hope that the right conditions to host alien life may lie on our cosmic doorstep. The discovery of the planet made shockwaves through the science community last year, as this newly discovered

After a little more than a year of research and more than 20 attempts to get the right materials, an Air Force Academy cadet and professor have developed a kind of goo that can be used to enhance existing types of body armour. As part of a chemistry class project in 2014, Cadet 1st Class

Scientists have shown for the first time that changes in entropy – the measure of disorder in a system – can accurately predict when a mysterious quantum flip, known as a quantum phase transition, is about to happen. That’s a big deal, because not only do we know very little about these quantum phase transitions

Scientists estimate that there are fewer than 30 vaquita porpoises left in the wild, and if serious conservation efforts aren’t enacted now, the species could reach extinction by 2018. If you’ve never seen one of these creatures before, it’s for good reason – these incredibly rare mammals are only found in the upper Gulf of

An Indian teenager has won an international competition to build a functioning satellite, and not only has he produced what is reportedly the world’s lightest satellite device – NASA has also agreed to launch it next month. The tiny satellite weighs just 64 grams (0.14 lb), and will embark on a 4-hour sub-orbital mission launched

Scientists have discovered that being an only child doesn’t just lead to behavioural differences that can set kids apart from those with siblings – it actually affects a child’s brain development, too. A new study comparing brain scans of only children and others who grew up with siblings has revealed significant differences in the participants’

For the first time, scientists have detected evidence of a magnetic field that’s associated with the vast intergalactic ‘bridge’ that links our two nearest galactic neighbours. Known as the Magellanic Bridge, the bridge is a huge stream of neutral gas that stretches some 75,000 light-years between our two neighbouring galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic

As concerns grow over the condition of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which has endured widespread coral bleaching in the past several years, scientists are finding similar damage on reefs all over the world, including in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Now, a recent expedition to the Chagos Archipelago, a collection of at least

Scientists just found a new way to split water into hydrogen and oxygen that’s cheap and effective – and it could mean we’re able to produce an abundance of clean hydrogen fuel in the future. Hydrogen is a fantastic source for clean energy, but the challenge is making enough of it to be efficient and

Astronomers have found a giant exoplanet larger than Jupiter, but with extremely low mass – a composition that gives this mysterious ‘puffy planet’ a density very similar to styrofoam. The team who found KELT-11b, which orbits a star located about 320 light-years from Earth, says this “extraordinarily inflated” world is the third-lowest density planet with a

Hundreds of large flashes have been filmed reflecting off our planet, and they’ve helped NASA solve a mystery that stumped the likes of Carl Sagan more than two decades ago. These flashes are so large, you can see them from space, and they were originally thought to be caused by sunlight reflecting off the surface

If you could travel back in time 41,000 years to the last ice age, your compass would point south instead of north. That’s because for a period of a few hundred years, Earth’s magnetic field was reversed. These reversals have happened repeatedly over the planet’s history, sometimes lasting hundreds of thousands of years. We know

Researchers have added to a growing body of evidence linking criminal psychopathy and changes in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. After scanning the brains of 124 inmates in the US, the team found that psychopathic traits such as a lack of empathy and impulsive antisocial behaviour were associated with larger than average grey matter

In the middle of the South Pacific, there’s a remote, uninhabited island, virtually hidden more than 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) from the closest major population centre. You’d think that this isolated sanctuary would be pretty unspoilt, but Henderson Island, which is so remote it’s only ever visited by scientists every five to 10 years, is in

On Wednesday, the Weather Channel posted a video of a digging clam to its Facebook page with the caption, “This bizarre video of a clam digging in sand has gone viral.” Never has an invertebrate prophecy been so self-fulfilling. The digging clam wracked up about 5 million views and counting. Commenters took to the clam with gusto, debating what sort of

Almost 500 years ago, Italy’s Campi Flegrei supervolcano erupted, spewing molten rock and thick plumes of smoke into the atmosphere for eight days straight, and literally forming a new mountain from the chunks of Earth it drew from below. Now, researchers are warning that this vast, fiery cauldron could be ready to blow once more,

In classical computing, information is stored in bits that are read by physical phenomena such as electricity. You might recognise them as 1s and 0s, also called binary code. In quantum computing, it’s stored in quantum bits, or ‘qubits’. However, computers aren’t the only way we can store information: chemistry is also capable. Scientists at the

You’re probably familiar with the creeping sensation you get when you think someone’s watching you. You don’t know why, but suddenly you’re convinced that someone is looking your way, even if you’re alone in your house… But is this just a trick our brain plays on us, or are we actually sensing something that’s really

No one can ever say for sure what the future will bring, but a new video has summed up all the science-backed predictions that we can reasonably make about how Earth will change over the next 1 billion years, and our poor little brains are reeling. The reality is that it’s highly unlikely that anyone

Symbolically at least, the MP3 is now officially dead, after the German research institution that helped to develop the famous (and equally infamous) standard announced that all licensing for the file format had been terminated. While any MP3s in your possession will still play fine on any devices that support the audio format – no

Despite the NSA confirming the existence of Skynet, we all should be grateful that technology has not yet advanced to the stage where a liquid metal T-1000 terminator can shape-shift its way into your home and demand to see John Connor. But scientists in China are making a solid effort make a less sinister version

For the first time ever, physicists have managed to directly detect a hydrogen bond within a single molecule – meaning we can now observe the smallest and most abundant element in the Universe in ways that scientists could only ever theorise about. The experiment also reveals just how sensitive our imaging devices have become –

An unprecedented ransomware attack spread across the globe on Friday and into the weekend, amounting to what may be the largest online extortion scam the internet has ever seen. So far, the ‘WannaCry’ ransomware worm has infected an estimated 230,000 computers in 150 countries, causing chaos and shutting down hospital systems, transport networks, manufacturing plants,

Scientists think they’ve filled an important gap in whale evolution – the fossilised remains of a specimen that lived around 36.4 million years ago, and is thought to be one of the first whales to use large, sieve-like combs called baleen instead of teeth to filter their food. Today, baleen whales (or mysticeti) are among the

Drone footage has captured something no one’s ever seen before – wild narwhals using their bizarre tusks to hunt Arctic cod by hitting and stunning them, making them easier to consume. The behaviour addresses a biological mystery that’s spanned decades – why these rare and elusive whales have evolved an extra-long left canine tooth that

Dutch innovator Boyan Slat’s audacious plan to clear plastic from the marine area known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is undergoing some major design changes. But the 22-year-old tells Business Insider that the first cleanup array is set to launch sooner than expected. “Instead of late 2020, the cleanup will now start in just 12 months from now,

Famous physicist Albert Einstein, assassinated Japanese prime-minister Hisashi Hamaguchi, and English engineer Charles Babbage all have at least one thing in common; pickled brains – all cut out of their skulls and preserved after their deaths so researchers could study their genius. The brain of 17th century French philosopher René Descartes is now dust, but

Were you to look up in the sky roughly 2 million years ago you would have seen a star die in a spectacular blaze of glory. It’s long been debated whether this supernova explosion would have been close enough to impact life on Earth, and now physicists have shown that while it most likely wouldn’t

The video opens with a close-up shot of a great white shark swimming solo in a turquoise ocean. But when it zooms out, the camera reveals the bustling coast of a Southern California beach. “You are paddleboarding next to approximately 15 great white sharks,” comes a voice from the local Sheriff’s Department. “The sharks are

Before being assembled into something recognisable at a museum, most dinosaur fossils look to the casual observer like nothing more than common rocks. No one, however, would confuse the over 110 million-year-old nodosaur fossil for a stone. The fossil, being unveiled today in Canada’s Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, is so well preserved it looks like

Supermassive black holes normally sit at the centre of galaxies, pulling in matter and devouring stars that get too close, but now astronomers are tracking one that seems to be speeding across space. Experts think this black hole might be recoiling – that’s the official term for when two black holes collide and merge, and

A dead unknown sea animal has been found washed up on an island in Indonesia. The bloodied creature lay in shallow waters on the shores of Seram Island. Local man Asrul Tuanakota made the discovery on Tuesday evening. It is thought to be 15 metres long and 6 to 7 metres wide. While local media

Confidential details of a top-secret encryption-breaking supercomputer were left completely exposed on an unsecured computer server belonging to New York University (NYU), according to a new report. While it’s not uncommon for even critical-level infrastructure to suffer potentially catastrophic security breaches, what makes this event different is that there was seemingly no foul-play or attempts

It’s very early days, but two papers published today have detected hints of elusive dark matter within data collected at the International Space Station (ISS). Dark matter is the hypothetical substance that makes up 26.8 percent of the known Universe, and explains why our Universe holds together. For decades, scientists have struggled to detect it,

Six engineering undergraduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed a portable device that converts text to braille in real-time. Their first prototype was created in a 15-hour hackathon in early 2016. Since that time, the device, called Tactile, has undergone extensive development. Now, it’s the size of a candy bar and completely portable. The

Unexpected findings about the atmosphere of a distant Neptune-sized world have surprised scientists, acting as a reminder that as we discover more about planets beyond our Sun, the lessons we’ve learned from our own Solar System certainly don’t always apply. In this case, HAT-P-26b – located some 437 light-years away from Earth – is what’s

Physicists at CERN have reported an unexplained phenomenon in their giant ion collider device – for the first time ever, particles called ‘strange hadrons’ have been observed in rare proton collisions. These strange hadrons aren’t new – we find them in quark-gluon plasma, which is the incredibly hot and dense state of matter thought to

For centuries, people have puzzled over how our Universe began. But the heat just got turned way up on a debate that’s quietly been raging between cosmologists, with 33 of the world’s most famous physicists publishing a letter angrily defending one of the leading hypotheses we have for the origin of the Universe. The letter is in response

A new global analysis of the distribution of forests and woodlands has ‘found’ 467 million hectares of previously unreported forest – an area equivalent to 60 percent of the size of Australia. The discovery increases the known amount of global forest cover by around 9 percent, and will significantly boost estimates of how much carbon

You’ve probably heard countless renditions of how the Universe and everything in it came to be, but you haven’t heard it like YouTuber Bill Wurtz tells it. It’s hard to look away, I can’t explain it, so you’ll just have to watch it and appreciate how delightfully bananas the whole thing is. After some scary realness about